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Thursday, 19 January 2017

Alfred Davis and his brother-in-law Hans Wilsdorf founded Wilsdorf and Davis, the company
that would eventually become Rolex SA, in London, England in 1905. Wilsdorf
and Davis' main commercial activity at the time involved importing Hermann
Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placing
them in high-quality watch cases made by Dennison and others. These early
wristwatches were sold to jewellers, who then put their own names on the dial. The
earliest watches from Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked
"W&D" inside the caseback.

In 1908 Wilsdorf registered the trademark "Rolex" and opened an
office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The company name
"Rolex" was registered on 15 November 1915. The book The Best
of Time: Rolex Wristwatches: An Unauthorized History by Jeffrey P.
Hess and James Dowling says that the name was just made up One story,
never confirmed by Wilsdorf, recounts that the name came from the French phrase horlogerie
exquise, meaning "exquisite clockwork or as a contraction of
"horological excellence". Wilsdorf was saidto want his watch brand's name to be easily pronounceable in any language. He also thought that the name
"Rolex" was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound. It is
easily pronounceable in many languages and, as all its upper-case letters have
the same size, can be written symmetrically. It was also short enough to fit on
the face of a watch.

In 1919 Wilsdorf left England due to wartime taxes levied on luxury imports
as well as to export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases
driving costs too high and moved the company to Geneva,
Switzerland, where it was established as the Rolex Watch Company. Its name
was later changed to Montres Rolex, SA and finally Rolex,
SA. Upon the death of his wife in 1944, Wilsdorf established the Hans
Wilsdorf Foundation, a private trust, in which he left all of his Rolex shares,
making sure that some of the company's income would go to charity. Wilsdorf
died in 1960; since then, the trust has owned and run the company.

Rolex is and will always be the most famous luxury watch brand and status symbol it stands for.